Verdict
Summary
Severin has resurrected these three titles from Italian movie obscurity for a nicely produced box set collection. As per Severin’s high standards, all three films look and sound great in widescreen high definition, and there’s even a soundtrack CD for the John Travolto: The Face With 2 Left Feet film. With commentaries, interviews, and trailers, this is a fun set to work your way through.
John Travolto: The Face With 2 Left Feet (1979) Plot:
A clumsy nerd bears a resemblance to John Travolta, and when they give him a makeover, he becomes a huge attraction at the local disco.
Review:
Mustachioed, glasses-wearing Gianni (Giuseppe Spezia, a one-time only actor) is a humble and hard-working cook at a hotel restaurant, and he spends his days off and his nights at the local disco, a dive called “John’s Fever” where he’s become completely smitten with the blonde goddess DJ (played by future porn star Ilona Staller), a woman who won’t give him the time of day, and the few friends he has realize that he bears a passing resemblance to the big-time Hollywood star John Travolta. Since Saturday Night Fever is such a big hit at the cinemas, still playing, they take Gianni to the movies and make him understand that if he really wants to win his dream girl that he’ll have to shave his mustache, lose the glasses, and learn some dance moves, and willing to change, he allows his friends to give him a big makeover, which honestly doesn’t require much work. In a flash, Gianni has become John Travolta! And it’s remarkable! People he knows at work think he’s the real deal, and as soon as he struts into “John’s Fever,” he’s a huge hit, getting an offer to appear nightly for a huge sum of cash to attract the tourists, and it works! But there’s one thing that doesn’t happen: He can’t convince the pretty DJ that he’s the real deal, which is great because Gianni doesn’t want to “be” John Travolta, only have his confidence and coolness, which is all he’ll need to win the girl and keep his friends.
A feel-good lark of a comedy that borders on a spoof, The Face With 2 Left Feet is hinged on a goofy concept that works. The filmmakers managed to capitalize on the trendy disco genre, plus they added a lookalike who’s a dead ringer for Travolta, building the entire movie around him. Spezia, if given a chance to make more movies, might’ve been able to have an exploitation spree of action and romance movies, but fate didn’t give him that opportunity. The music is weak, and the comedy isn’t very funny, but it’s an easy watch and there’s a charm to the whole thing that somehow makes it a winner. From director Neri Parenti.
American Fever (1979) Plot:
An aspiring actor has dreams of being a big star, but through trials and tribulations must resort to being a disco king in his town.
Review:
Tony (Mircha Carven) is a handsome “good boy” who has worked at a gas station for ten years, having been groomed by the owner to one day take over the small business, but Tony has big dreams of becoming a Hollywood movie star, which is a long shot by miles because he lives in Italy and the closest he’s ever gotten to being noticed by movie producers is to be chosen to be either an extra in the background or doing a dangerous stunt for a spaghetti western. His agent is a two-bit hustler who owes lots of money to bookies and yet he’s always trying to convince Tony that their big break is coming soon, just around the corner, but literally every paycheck Tony gets from his background work, his agent just ends up borrowing from him. With enforcers hounding Tony’s loser agent, it seems next to impossible that Tony will ever get anywhere, but when he ends up at a party thrown by some producers, he impresses everyone with his physique and machismo and is offered a role in a pornographic film, which he (wisely) turns down, despite the money and the possibility that it could be a leg up for him in the industry. Meanwhile, Tony begins romancing a girl named Lisa (Zora Kerova) whom he randomly talked out of jumping off a bridge, but Lisa comes with complications, not the least of which is the fact that she’s suicidal and impulsive. Tony spends his nights (and his money) at the nearby neighborhood discotheque where he’s very popular, and after pissing off his only real connections to the movie industry for turning down their offer to do porn, Tony seems destined to be a gas station owner and disco hero indefinitely.
Pretty down to earth and realistic for an exploitation film that rushed to exploit the popularity of John Travolta and Saturday Night Fever, American Fever (which has a theme song that plays at least three times) is grounded in gritty realism and has an oddly depressing quality to it, but that makes it really interesting. Carven plays the handsome protagonist with endless optimism and good will, always positive, despite being taken advantage of multiple times, and the film ends with him in a workout montage, as if he’s ready to keep trying to improve himself. Unfairly relegated to obscurity until now, this film is worth a look. From filmmaker Claudio De Molinis.
Grease Rock (1979) Plot:
A small town disco dancer tries impressing a girl who is way out of his league.
Review:
Robbie (one-time only actor Monty Ray Garrison) is a well-liked young man who has a rich girl buddy who dotes on him and loans him cash whenever he’s broke, which is pretty much all the time. He gets around town on a Russian-made motorcycle with a sidecar, and his brother-in-law is successful businessman who runs the local butcher shop, and so the offer is always open for him to start working there, but Robbie has dreams of maybe becoming a movie star some day, or becoming the disco dance champ at the local discotheque. When he lays eyes on a sexy American woman (played by Auretta Gay) at the club, he pegs her as his next great possibly attainable dream, but after spending every dollar he has on their first date a swanky restaurant, he realizes that she’s out of his league. When his competition – another biker and disco dancer lothario – gets his girl’s attention, they agree to compete in a deadly bike race, with the victor getting to claim the girl for good, but when that turns into a fiasco, they do a dance off at the club for a big prize, but by that time Robbie has moved on with his rich gal pal who loves him.
A lightweight romantic comedy with disc as the overlying theme, Grease Rock has an odd charm to it, thanks to its casting of Garrison, who is a cross between Jim Carrey and John Travolta with his blue collar goofiness and good looks. He’s got something, but it’s no surprise that he didn’t go on to do any other movies; I kept trying to cast him in other movies of the era in my mind while I was watching this, and I could only peg him for a sidekick or a likeable loser in sex comedies, but fate had other things in store for him. The film isn’t very memorable, and likely the weakest of the three films Severin has included in this box set, but it’s fun enough to enjoy on autopilot. From director Michele Massimo Tarantini.
Severin has resurrected these three titles from Italian movie obscurity for a nicely produced box set collection. As per Severin’s high standards, all three films look and sound great in widescreen high definition, and there’s even a soundtrack CD for the John Travolto: The Face With 2 Left Feet film. With commentaries, interviews, and trailers, this is a fun set to work your way through.
Special Features
- Audio Commentary For AMERICAN FEVER With Film Historians Nathaniel Thompson And Howard S. Berger
- All About The Music: The Birth Of Disco And The Road To Italy’s AMERICAN FEVER – Interview With Alan Jones, Author Of Discomania: Fantastic Beats And Where To Find Them
- Audio Commentary For GREASE ROCK With Film Historians Nathaniel Thompson And Eugenio Ercolani
- Brillantina Is The Word – Interview With Alan Jones
- Audio Commentary For JOHN TRAVOLTO: THE FACE WITH 2 LEFT FEET With Film Historians Nathaniel Thompson, Eugenio Ercolani And Howard S. Berger
- The Show Is Over: JOHN TRAVOLTO And The End Of The ‘Disco Film’ – Interview With Alan Jones
- Trailers
